The Kings view
by dukefan01
Summary: The King from Cinderella's thoughts and point of view as he watches Eric get married, both the attempt to ursula and the success to Ariel. Summery sucks.


**So I have recently learned, despite the fact that this was my favorite movie for my entire childhood, that the King and the Grand Duke from Cinderella made an appearance in the Little mermaid when Eric was marrying Vanessa or the sea witch. So I wondered what he had thought about all the magic and stuff, and so yeah, this is what happened. It's just for fun! It happens after Cinderella and during the Little Mermaid. I own neither.**

The King and the Grand Duke stood in the line of guests for Prince Eric's wedding. The King was quite pleased that he was here, because there had been no warning. He had known Eric for years, as he did trade with the young Prince's parents when they were alive. Since they had recently died and left the newly eighteen year old sea fairing man a ruler, the King felt he should come pay his respects. He knew the young princes confidant and trusted family friend Grimsby was encouraging the prince to find a wife, and the King thought maybe he could help as well, now that his son had found a wonderful bride himself. When they arrived though, they were pleasantly surprised to learn that Eric did find someone he wanted to marry and they were actually getting married in a few hours. Grimsby invited the King and the Grand Duke to witness the wedding, to which both readily agreed. All higher status people in the young mans kingdom were in attendance, but no visiting royalty because of the extreme short notice. Apparently everyone was informed about the wedding that morning! However the romantic part of the King didn't question this, and assumed it was probably a woman Grimsby arranged to have Eric meet and they decided they wanted to just go ahead and perform the marriage. They all boarded the wedding barge and set up, anxiously awaiting the event to occur. The King easily found Grimsby in the crowd, as the elderly man was responsible for watching over the princes' loyal dog Max. "A lovely day for a wedding no?" he asked with a smile. Grimsby nodded.

"Indeed, she is a lovely woman. Eric tells me that she rescued him from drowning." Grimsby said. The King laughed.

"A seafaring man like him needing a young woman to rescue him from drowning?" he asked. It was strange, since he knew the prince knew how to swim. Grimsby nodded.

"Yes. He spent quite a while looking for her, now that he has he is very intent on marring her before she can disappear again." the elder explained. The King laughed.

"I can understand that. It took me years to convince my son to finally look for a bride. When he found a girl he liked, she vanished. We looked everywhere until we found her, and they got married immediately!" the King explained. Grimsby nodded, knowing how much the King had wanted his son to get married. He had never had the pleasure of meeting the young man himself, he was much like Eric, a spirited young man that was out traveling every chance he got. The music started and everyone took their places, glad the ceremony was to begin. Grimsby didn't understand why it had to be at sunset out on the sea, but that's exactly what they wanted. Eric and Vanessa came out onto the deck. Eric wore a white dress shirt with a white sash, blue pants and black boots. He looked every bit of an elegant Prince. Vanessa was on his right, and was was stunning. She had dark brown hair down to her lower back under a long white vale. She wore a long sleeved white dress and had a beautiful seashell necklace on her chest. In her hands were a bouquet of red roses. As they came up the aisle the people bowed in respect to their prince. The King heard Max growl, then yelp as they passed, but when he looked down he couldn't assert what made the dog cry. As they reached the pastor, he began the service. The King smiled in a wistful way, he loved weddings. As the pastor began the vows though, the King could hear a loud squawking of a sea gull. He looked up to see a large gull coming to the boat quickly, with a line of little blue birds behind him. Vanessa looked up just in time to realize the birds were diving at her. With a yell, she through her flowers to the deck and ducked, covering her head. The birds were mere inches over her head. What surprised the King was that Eric and the pastor didn't react at all. The girl tentatively stood up to see the birds loop around and come at her again. She took a step to move away, turning herself around and the birds went under her dress, tossing it up in her face while she yelled in surprise. The King looked at the Grand Duke and Grimsby as Max began going crazy, barking and jumping, pulling on the leash in the elderly confidants hands. The Grand Duke pulled the King to the side as the blue birds began attacking the guests. The had a clear view of the side of the ship where two sea otters leaped up onto the deck. Hearing the bride scream again, they turned just in time to see the sea gull hit her with a mouth full of water. Two other birds, pelicans, followed doing the same, but the last one dumped a large number of blue lobsters on her as well. One landed on her head and pinched her nose, leading to her screaming. However she was silenced only an instant later by a large number of star fish that were flung at her, sticking to her body and covering her mouth.

"We should go somewhere safe your majesty." the Grand Duke insisted, but the King was captivated. From his limited experience with magic, he was sure this had something to do with it.

"Get away from me you slimy little..." Vanessa growled, pulling the starfish off of her, but in the distraction, she missed the otter coming up behind her. It knocked her over and began bouncing her in the air. After a few seconds it got board and tossed her to another one, that through her into the wedding cake. She crashed down on the desert and sent champagne glasses flying. Standing up, Vanessa was coated in icing from head to toe. She was so angry and about to yell, but three dolphins leaped up from the water behind her and spit the salty spray into her face, washing off the icing. The sea gull that lead the assault then flew into her face with a scream. In anger, she snagged the bird by it's neck. "Oh, why you little..." she growled, but the bird was grabbing onto her necklace, as if it wanted to pull it off.

"Oh good heavens!" the Grand Duke cried. The King heard Grimsby gasp and turned to see Max's leash snap. He watched the shaggy dog as it ran by him and the other guests toward the girl. Reaching her, he sank his teeth into her rear. With a scream she through herself backwards onto the deck, releasing the bird. A snap rang out as her necklace broke and the shell went soaring through the air. The King watched it fly towards a young woman who he was sure wasn't on the ship before. She was so pretty he was sure he would remember seeing her. Also, her fiery long hair was hard to miss and her blue dress was soaked, telling him she was recently in the water. The shell broke at her feet, sending shards across her but that wasn't what anyone was looking at anymore. A strange golden light formed from the shards and a beautiful singing voice rose with it. The light traveled up the girls body and the King was stunned. He had heard of magic, but nothing like this! The light went around the girl before settling in her throat, and she began singing before fading off with the last note.

"Ariel!?" the King turned to see Eric was finally reacting! Taking a hesitant step forward toward the girl. His dog Max ran over to the girl, jumping at her to show his owner she was good.

"Eric!" she affirmed.

"Y..You can talk?!" he said with a wide smile, then he ran forward to the girl, leaving his bride lying on the deck next to the alter.

"Eric, get away from her!" he could hear Vanessa yell, but the prince met the girl and held her close.

"I..I..It was you all the time!" he said, unable to contain his joy.

"Oh Eric, I wanted to tell you." the girl said as they leaned towards each other.

"ERIC NO!" screamed Vanessa as Eric reached down to kiss her, but as the sun slipped down below the waves the girl gasped and fell to the deck. "Your too late!" yelled the woman as she laughed, and the King was stunned as in place of the girls legs was an emerald green fish tale. Eric and the girl looked stunned as well. The woman kept laughing, but when he heard lighting, the King had to turn his attention back to her. Vanessa's body ripped apart to reveal a hideous octopus woman! The guest gasped in horror and the King and the Grand Duke forced themselves to step back. The woman leaned forward and crawled stunningly fast across the deck where she grabbed the girl and climbed onto the railing. "So long lover boy." she said as the girl struggled against her, and then both were lost to the waves bellow.

"ARIEL!" yelled the prince, running to the railing. Looking around, he starting running toward the rear. "Grim, get the ship back to the docks!" he yelled. Eric ripped off his jacket to show a white undershirt and cut free a life boat so that it fell to the water below. He jumped down into it and started rowing, the guests swarming the side to see what the young man was doing.

"Eric what are you doing?!" Grimsby yelled in shock.

"Grim I lost her once, I'm not gonna loose her again!" Eric yelled back. The King nearly collapsed into the Grand Duke's arms.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take." he said. Grimsby gave hurried instructions, and the ship headed for the docks. They all arrived and exited the ship, but the King wanted to see how this turned out. Everyone gathered at a safe vintage spot to watch what was occurring. For a few minutes the sea was calm and no one knew what was happening. However the whole land began quaking and an enormous sea monster burst forward. Her roaring voice reached them, but not clearly enough for them to understand words. The sea became an instant storm and the King clung to the Grand Duke, afraid of what was going on. Sunken ships were rising to the surface, and they watched as one rammed into the huge giant. Screaming, she sank below the waves with the ship. The sea calmed, and everything appeared as it should be. The King collapsed again, the worry too much for him.

"What happened?" the Grand Duke asked. Grimsby stood frozen. He couldn't believe any of this! Eric almost married an octopus woman, then ran off after a mermaid, something he didn't even think was real!

"Looks like Eric found himself a girl and went off to save her." the King finally said. The other two elderly men looked at him like he grew a second head. How could he explain it all in such a simple fashion. Not knowing what to do, Grimsby decided to sit and wait.

A little after sunrise, Eric arrived back with the girl, in a sparkling light blue dress that looked like it was made from the sea itself. The King, the Grand Duke, Grimsby Charlotta, and Louie swarmed the Prince immediately, the girl stepping slightly behind him and holding onto his shoulder. "What happened out there?!" the King asked, seeing as how he had the most authority, the others backed down.

"This is Ariel, she's the daughter of King Triton, Princess of the sea. She saved my life, and I have decided to marry her." he said. Everyone looked at Ariel who nodded in agreement.

"That doesn't really explain anything!" the Grand Duke said. Ariel looked down, slightly ashamed.

"Like who was that other woman?" Grimsby asked.

"Her name was Ursula, she was a sea witch. She used my voice to make Eric think she was me and tried to marry him so he wouldn't marry me so I would have to return to the sea and she could steal my fathers throne." Ariel tried. They all looked at her, thousands of questions from that little explanation, but instead of asking, the King just smiled.

"Well then. I expect you wish to marry this young woman!" he said, and it wasn't a question, but rather a statement. They both nodded to confirm it anyway. The King nodded. "Very well. Let us send out invitations to invite others!" he said. They both shook their heads immediately.

"Why not?" Charlotta asked.

"Well, I want Ariel's family to be there too, and if too many people come, they won't." Eric said. The King understood and smiled, the romantic in him back.

"I see. Well, what are we doing then?! We have a wedding!" he yelled.

xxxxx

A few days later, the King wiped tears from his eyes as he watched Eric and Ariel kiss at the alter, making them man and wife. Max jumped up between them to kiss them both, and they reached down to pet him. The King glanced over the side of the wedding ship to see it surrounded by many different kinds of sea creatures, and most importantly a large number of mermaids and mermen. The Princess went to the side where the seagull that started the whole crash of the first wedding raised a yellow and blue fish from the water. Ariel kissed the fish and pet the bird before moving to another spot where she could better see her father the king. King Triton rose out of the water where he hugged his daughter. Eric was standing a bit off to the side and bowed before he approached. The sea king sank back to the water as the bride and groom waved to the various merpeople. The sea king then sent a rainbow over their ship. The King cried into the Grand Duke's shirt. This wedding was beautiful, and there was nothing more precious to him then finding true love.


End file.
